The Palm Opening

Rebirth ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

As I was shuffling this morning I had a jumper card. I picked it up off the floor to see Rebirth. Traditionally called The Sun in other decks it's certainly not one I'm going to reject when it comes my way. It feels like a good card to pull today. The kitchen gleams with the fruits of my labors, my body is feeling normal again and outside the sun is, in fact, shining brightly. Ds starts a new class today, always an opportunity to practice a sunny self. And I'm aware of the recent solar eclipse last weekend.

There are some underlying currents of tension that I could attach my focus to but seeing this card I feel like the medicine is to allow the sun to permeate my being, including all those nooks and crannies quietly sitting in the shadows. In this card a couple welcomes a tiny baby into the manifest world. The trees bear witness, silent and sentinel, the Sun rises in joy, animals attend to the ceremony playfully reminding me of my own animal body, that its presence is cause for celebration. The little child lies with arms wide open to receive the world, a gesture that implies both power and vulnerability. Try it right now, lean back turn your face upwards, breathe in and then open your arms wide on the outbreath. It's a sensation and gesture that doesn't get much play in an adult body. Perhaps I'll spend some time in that arms-wide-open position today. This baby looks as though it's arising out of a lotus, out of the perfection of an awareness that is rooted deeply in the earth but rests lightly on the cosmic waters. The couple are shining in their own way with love and tenderness, the hearts on the little blanket reminding me that love supports life.

I wonder who is being reborn in this picture. Certainly I felt my own rebirth when my son was born. That day I was born a mother. Children allow us that, it's one of the surprises of parenting. You learn to play in the sand again, run between raindrops, discover a frog for the first time, try the wind on, feel the sweet chill of ice cream on the tongue, fly in the swings, meet hands and toes as objects of fascination...This attitude of wide-eyed amazement at the everyday world is such deep magic.

I recall a profound teaching my son gave me when he was an infant. He'd been playing with one of his toys for a while, entranced, enthralled, delighted. And then just as quickly he was done. He simply opened his palm slowly and watched the toy roll out of it and onto the floor. He didn't push it away or throw it down, the simple act of opening his palm was enough to allow its release. So this is how it's done with what we hold onto, I thought. No effort required, just an opening, an outbreathing...a rebirth.